


The History of Michelle Jones

by Marvelrsships



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 15:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15146012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvelrsships/pseuds/Marvelrsships
Summary: Peter wants to know about MJ’s back story and her heritage so she decides to tell him.





	The History of Michelle Jones

**Author's Note:**

> This is about Anne’s backstory. I looked up some facts about the things happening around the time she was probably born. It includes slaves and racial prejudices be warned. Also I mean no offense to anyone at all.

“Hey Michelle, tell me about your history.”  
Michelle glared at him, “How many times do I have to tell you, it’s MJ.”  
“I like Michelle better.” Peter told her.  
“It’s my name I’ll do what I want.”  
“Whatever. What’s your history?”  
“The history I’m taking is European History and it’s...” she started.  
“That’s not what I meant. Family history.” Peter explained.  
“Oh you don’t wanna know that.” MJ said as she turned back to her book.  
“Why do you say that? Aren’t you proud?”  
“More than proud my heritage is amazing.”  
“Then why won’t you tell me.”  
“It’s a really long story.”  
“I got time.”  
“Fine. But just remember you asked for it.”   
“I did.”  
“My ancestor Anne Wheeler was the first trapeze person. She was a black woman and essentially she was born when there were still slaves. As was the case in slave times her mother was taken by their white master and he knocked her up. 9 months with a child she didn’t want. That was not such a great start. So her parents (Her brother WD’s biological parents) never really cared for her because of this so from the beginning it was just WD that cared since he was 5 years when it happened and didn’t understand the problem. When she was 8 her parents died so the slave masters kicked them out and her brother had to take care of her at 13. He was the only one that ever showed her any love ever. WD always tried to get into orphan care and they always kicked them out. And her being a woman, much less a half black half white woman she got a lot of crap. She was 8 and already knew the harsh harsh hardships of the world. No one was nice to them. Two Black orphans and since she wasn’t completely black like her brother she got the bad end of both the whites and blacks. WD was treated ok since he was all black. He would always try to stand up for her and protect her. Like this one time the slaves were allowed to go the theater. ( it was Sunday so some slave owners allowed it)The very very top part was where they had to sit, WD was invited this one time but he had to leave his sister behind. And they called her some awful names (that I don’t want to repeat so use your imagination) when they said this. So WD didn’t go even when he was asked more than once. He never accepted anything if Anne didn’t get the same. Anne always dreamed of finding someone to love her for her other than her brother and to be in the skies. So in back alleys her and WD would practice trapeze routines. One time Anne fell but she landed in the garbage so she was fine. WD was adopted (against his will of course) when she was 12 and didn’t return for 2 years because he couldn’t find a way to return for so long. She just hid in back alleys hoping no one would find her and she would somehow get food. She would dig through trash cans of restaurants sometimes cause she could usually find something. When WD did come back he had been given a position at a prestigious (as much as it could be; and this was also the same year the civil war ended) black institution that looked for young talent. WD took the money they offered and took the position not telling them about Anne because they didn’t know about her and he thought it would not allow him to provide for her. He decided to take his money and take care of his sister. He bought a rinky dink apartment and they survived as best they could. She became healthy again and he put away some money. When the people found out about Anne they were none to pleased. She wasn’t completely black!!! So he got thrown out of the institution but they kept the apartment. 6 years later they were running out of cash. Then a miracle happened.  
“It was the Circus!!”  
“SHH. Shut up spider face. Barnum auditioned them and because of all the trapeze practice they were signed on. Then Philip came in the picture and that scared her. He was this fancy white man with a title and inheritance looking at her with stary eyes, in fact she had never seen so much gentleness and fondness in eyes before. She was terrified, no one had looked at her with that amount of love or treated her with such respect and admiration. The way he acted when he met her or first saw her. She put up walls because of her incredibly difficult childhood. WD, of course, protected her but Philip would not give up. When he took her hand this one time she was frightened but thought maybe this man actually could love a person like her for herself. Until his parents saw them and he let go of her hand... and screwed it up. Of course she was used to it but she had already gotten her hopes up so she was hurt and she channeled it into her singing the circus songs. Philip kept treating her with respect and love and proudly introduced her to his parents (there’s a whole back story to them to. Long story short his parents were close friends with her biological father and they knew where she came from but I can tell that too if you want long story)...”  
“Give me the long story.”  
“ Peter you’re interrupting again.”   
“I just wanted you to know I wanted long story!”  
“So the long story is that Philip always went with his parents to the house parties and always saw the little dark girl working with people darker than her but he never did anything to stop her treatment. He just said hi once and gave her a flower he picked cause he didn't know why she was treated so bad (they were young so when they met again they didn’t remember) he only saw her a few times but he could go say hi or try to play with her because 1. He "knew better" 2. The one time he spoke his parents were busy and didn't see him run off. So when Anne was kicked out he thought he'd never see her again. But of course he did. That's one of the reasons why he looked at her with awe that first time he saw her cause something about her was familiar even though he couldn't put his finger on it. She was the most beautiful woman to him even though he couldn't remember the little girl he gave the flower too. That's also why his parents called her "the help" because she was the bastard they knew before she was kicked out and they remember her. They didn't tell Phillip though. But Phillip being the pure soul he is defended her because he thought it was rude and he vaguely remembered the times when there were slaves. (Of course he did nothing cause he didn't want to lose any title or inheritance and he was a kid what would he do?) she, of course, didn’t remember them at all cause the house parties where she would’ve seen them she was never near, so they were nasty to her and she ran away. But after Phillip almost died trying to save her from the Barnum fire she realized he could love her for her and all her bruises and hardships and that she didn’t have to worry about him hurting her just the world. She was finally healed and importantly she was happy. And it was a white person of prestige who did it of all people. So spandex my family has some records or a few things wanna know more?”  
“Hey!! Why’d you call me spandex?”  
“Your suit is spandex.”  
“Hmph.... I don’t like it but yes wanna hear more.” Peter was so interested he didn’t even notice Ned walking up. MJ stopped and looked at Ned, “Yes Ned?”  
“Peter we need to go work on our ship. It’s 4 study is over.”  
“I’m not leaving yet. Anne I mean Michelle is telling me about her family.”  
MJ snorted, “You called me Anne.”  
“Yes I’m aware of that fact. Please continue.”  
“Who’s Anne?” Ned asked confused.  
“Her great X6 grandma. Now sh I’m trying to listen.”  
MJ cracked a smile, “I’ll tell you but I don’t tell it to too many people because of what happened after they had kids. 2 of them. They had a little boy who’s color was barely noticeable so he looked white, Warren. A little girl who had the curly hair you generally don’t see on white people and her skin was a bit more colored and noticeable, Taylor who they named after Barnum. When Taylor was 1 Phillip ran into his parents again and they saw Warren (who was 3) and thought Phillip had married a “respectable young woman”. They couldn’t see Taylor but when Phillip took her off his shoulder they did see her and were confused. Then Anne came up and they were horrified. He told him he would introduce her to them but he tried that and he didn’t think they cared. So he gave Anne their daughter to carry, picked up Warren and walked away. His parents were so furious they adopted a child to take their inheritance since they were to old to have children and their one child had “run off with the help”. But there is this sort of ironic part I know. Taylor always had trouble fitting in because of her skin. Warren didn’t because he was pretty much all white. He would always walk to friends houses so they wouldn’t know about his parents. (Not that he was ashamed of them... quite the contrary he thought they were the best in the world... this was on their request) All his friends knew was that he really enjoyed that circus in the tent. They thought it was cool too. Taylor however didn’t fit in quite well which broke Anne’s heart because she thought things would’ve changed since she was child. PT put her in the circus and named her the little circus queen. Caroline and Helen always treated her to so many things and took her under their wing, but that wasn’t the same as having girls your age. One night a little boy came up to Taylor after the show, he looked up at his parents first. Anne and Philip were ready to sweep their little girl away lest this turned into a bad situation. The boy proceed to hand Taylor a little carved elephant and then the family walked away. Taylor turned to her parents full of joy and her parents were too. Anne swept her up and hugged her and then turned to Philip.  
“You know that kind of brought back my only good memory that I had almost forgotten.”  
“What’s that?” Philip asked smiling at his daughter in his wife’s arms.  
“When I was about 5 there was this little boy that came from a house party, he was very shy and he was a white boy. He gave me a little yellow flower and I kept it as long as I could.”  
“Aw that’s so sweet!” Philip smiled, “Do you remember the kid’s name?”  
“Not for the life of me. I heard it when his mother called him back to the party. I wonder what that little boy is up to now.”  
“Yeah, that’d be an interesting thing to know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! I appreciate it. Please tell me what you think and if you have any ideas for Peter and Michelle or Anne and Phillip!


End file.
